The seminar titled 'Do Managers Matter? Management Practices in post-Covid Northern Ireland' was presented by Dr David Jordan and Professor John Turner, Queen's Business School, Queen's University Belfast. It took place on Wednesday 31 January 2024 at 15.30 in the NERI/ICTU offices, 45-47 Donegall Street, Belfast, BT1 2FG.
Please find the video from the seminar.
Details of seminar:
Dr David Jordan and Professor John Turner, Queens Business School, Queen's University Belfast made their presentation on their Northern Ireland management paper. Subsequently, a discussion was open to the floor where the chairperson, Paul Mac Flynn, NERI Co-director presented questions to David and John.
Abstract:
In our report, we examine the management practices of businesses in Northern Ireland. Using results from our management practices survey, we find that there is a long tail of firms with poor management. Larger firms, with better qualified managers, who have taken leadership training, score closer to best practice; while firms that face weak competition, and are second-generation family-managed, have poorer management practices. In terms of firm performance, better management practices scores are associated with higher levels of firm digitalisation, working from home, exports, and profitability. Our results suggest policymakers should target support at firms with characteristics associated with being further from best practice.
Biographies of the presenter:
John Turner is a Professor of Finance and Financial History at Queen’s University Belfast. He is a former Dean of Queen’s Business School. He is also the founder and director of the Queen’s University Centre for Economic History and the Long Run Institute. His most recent book Boom and Bust: A Global History of Financial Bubbles was published by Cambridge University Press and was a Financial Times Economics Book of the Year in 2020. His next book The CEO: The Rise and Fall of Britain’s Captains of Industry is forthcoming in 2025. He has held several distinguished positions during his career - he has been a Houblon-Norman Fellow at the Bank of England and an Alfred D. Chandler Fellow at Harvard Business School. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Melbourne and Yale University. He is currently an editor at the Economics Observatory and heads up the Northern Ireland Productivity Forum.
David Jordan is a Lecturer in Economics at Queen's Business School, where he is currently examining the reasons behind low levels of productivity in Northern Ireland, as part of the work of the Northern Ireland Productivity Forum. His wider research focuses on regional and public economics, alongside economic and financial history. He is particularly interested in the economics of devolution, including how institutions and policy have shaped the long-run performance of Northern Ireland’s economy. David is a Research Associate at The Productivity Institute, a Research Associate at the Queen's University Centre for Economic History, and an Associate Fellow of the Queen's University Institute of Irish Studies.